


Scars of the Past

by akitcougar



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 08:02:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13049892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akitcougar/pseuds/akitcougar
Summary: Link and Zelda say goodbye to their old friends.





	Scars of the Past

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Masu_Trout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masu_Trout/gifts).



            Scars never heal the same. Link knew this fact intimately, from the ache in his shoulder during a rainstorm to the twinned feelings of fondness and loss as he recovered his memories.

            Hyrule was just starting to heal over its own scars from the Calamity, with the return of the Silent Princess flowers spreading all across the shattered kingdom.

            Of course, not every scar was visible. Link stoked the campfire as Zelda slept fitfully next to him, her mind replaying one hundred years of holding back Ganon. She gasped awake and bit down on her arm to keep from screaming.

            Link put a gentle hand on her shoulder, his thumb rubbing comforting circles until Zelda got her breath under control again.

            “Thank you, Link,” she said quietly. “I don’t… I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep tonight. Do you need to?”

            Link shook his head, pointing at the horizon. The barest light of dawn was starting to creep over, outlining the tall spire of Rito Village in the distance.

            “You’re right. If neither of us is going to get back to sleep, then we should get moving.” She stood up, brushing off some dirt and rubbing at the circles under her eyes.

 

* * *

 

            They had traveled to the Gorons and the Zora first, after a brief stop in Kakariko Village. Zelda wanted to pay her respects to each of the Champions and their Divine Beasts, to talk with her friends one last time.

            Daruk was his usual cheerful and loud self, happy that Hyrule was free at last, and had grabbed both of them in an enormous hug. Mipha was gentler with her words, but she surprised even herself with her loud laughter at her younger brother’s antics as he leapt onto the Divine Beast with Link and Zelda. There were no tears when they faded away for good, only fondness.

            That was the easiest part of their journey, the one where their scars ached the least.

            The Gerudo Desert was a whole other story.

            “Link, I don’t… I’m not sure I can do this,” Zelda said, hesitating at the end of the canyon. Link was already stabling their horses, exchanging a few rupees with the stable owner so that he would also hold onto some of their equipment they wouldn’t need in a desert.

            He walked back over to his friend and cocked his head to the side, questioning. He jerked a thumb northward, towards the Tabantha Frontier.

            “If… if you wouldn’t mind,” Zelda mumbled. “I think I just need more time.”

            Link nodded. He understood. It was why he’d taken so long to go to Rito Village, the first time he took this journey.

 

* * *

 

            And now they were here, on one of the highest points in the world, watching Revali’s spirit soar through the air one last time. Looking only briefly to Zelda for permission, Link smiled wide and jumps off the tower. The wind rushing in his face tore a laugh from the normally-reticent Champion as he pulled out his paraglider and matched Revali twist for turn in the air.

            As the pair of champions soared, they grew closer together, their movements matching more and more.

            It was a dance, one they’d never been able to do in life.

            Link and Revali had landed on the cliff’s edge away from the village, and Zelda could just make out their heads bent together, Link’s hands buried in Revali’s feathers, until Revali faded into the wind.

            To Zelda’s eye, it felt too much like stealing a glimpse of their love, making her scars inflicted by Ganon ache.

            When she and Link were ready to move on, she didn’t say a word about the tears glistening at the corner of his eyes.

 

* * *

 

            She still felt like she wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready for the heat of the sun beating down on them. She wasn’t ready for Vah Naboris on the ridge. She wasn’t ready to face Gerudo Town.

            She was grateful when Link made them stop at Kara Kara Bazaar for the night. He convinced her to climb up onto the rock at the top of the Bazaar late at night when the stars were out. He held out his paraglider.

            “I… what?” she asked.

            “Clears my head. Might help,” he said. He wasn’t one to speak often, not after spending so much time on his own. He was careful with his words, as if they might be stolen away if he said too many.

            Zelda peered over the edge of the rock. It wasn’t that far up, she supposed. She took the paraglider and prepared herself for jumping off a building and–

            Link grabbed her by the shoulders and leapt up, a mysterious current of winds carrying them high.

            Zelda shrieked. “Link!”

            Link just laughed as he gently pushed Zelda forward and let the winds carry him back down. Zelda hung onto the glider for dear life, but felt herself floating down. 

            She looked up at the stars, and they held her gaze. For a moment, all her worries fell away, and she was thrown back to a time before the Calamity. She could almost feel–

            Her feet touched the ground, tearing her out of the moment. She looked contemplatively at the paraglider as Link walked up to her, a sparkle of amusement in his eye and an “I told you so” written in the arrogant smirk he’d picked up from Revali.

            “I want one of these,” Zelda said.

 

* * *

 

            Zelda managed to sleep peacefully for the first time in the weeks since Calamity Ganon was defeated, but both she and Link still got up before dawn.

            Link started pulling out an outfit. She knew he’d snuck into Gerudo Town before, but she couldn’t help but giggle when he pulled out a very nice traditional Gerudo outfit for vai. He shrugged, pulling his usual Champion’s tunic off.

            Zelda watched, fascinated by the pattern of scars on his back. One in particular caught her eye, a large slash with streaks of lightning scars running off of it. Gently putting her fingers on it, she asked, “What’s this one from?”

            Link twisted to see which scar she meant. “Stormblight Ganon. Vah Naboris. Lightning potion ran out.”

            She pulled away. It was always hard to remember that Link had done so much, fought so much on his own, while she and Ganon trapped each other in the castle.

            He stood and put a hand on her shoulder.

            “You’re right, I know,” she sighed. “You would have done it again if you had to.”

            “So would you.”

            Zelda blinked.

 

* * *

 

            Gerudo Town had not changed much in the past century.

            “Sav’aaq!” Zelda cheerfully called to everyone they passed. She browsed all the stalls in the bazaar, to Link’s amusement.

            Eventually, though, she had to face Vah Naboris again.

            She felt her scars ache as Link led her to the Divine Beast, and she felt the pain twist inside her as Urbosa’s spirit greeted them.

            She faltered, stumbling and unsure. Link pushed her forward.

            “Urbosa…”

            “Zelda,” Urbosa said warmly, pulling Zelda into an embrace, “It has been a long time.”

            Zelda bit her tongue, her shoulders shaking with held back sobs, because this was supposed to be a happy moment, a reunion with the woman she loved, not, not–

            “Hush, hush, it’s all right,” Urbosa whispered. “Your knight isn’t looking.”

            Zelda gulped a breath of air, and the tears started to fall as she clung tightly to Urbosa. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

            Urbosa pulled away, wiping Zelda’s tears away. “You have nothing to be sorry for. We made our choices, and the world is better off now.”

            “But I didn’t… I don’t…” Zelda fumbled for the right words. “I don’t want to say goodbye.”

            “I know.”

            Urbosa held Zelda until she calmed down, able to wipe her own tears away.

            “Know that it is with love that I say this,” Urbosa said. “But I hope I do not see you again until after you’ve lived a long life.”

            “I’m sor–“

            Urbosa held up a finger to Zelda’s lips. “No more apologies. I’m sad I will not be able to share this with you, but you deserve to have a happy life, after the past one hundred years.”

            Zelda nodded, and she pulled Urbosa into a fierce kiss, filled with fire and sorrow and so many other feelings that she couldn’t put into words.

            She felt Urbosa’s smirk as Zelda dug her fingers into that red hair, trying to hold on as her lover faded away into the night.

            When she opened her eyes, there was nothing. An ancient divine beast, the chill of a desert night, and her scars.

            And, with a certainty she’d never felt before, she knew she would heal. She would never be the same, but she would heal, in time.


End file.
